Newport News, VA
novusblack@gmail.com
Instagram: @gregartstoo
When I first read the theme Archival Practices in the Virtual Age, my mind went straight to the physical — prints on archival paper, framed pieces meant to last, something tangible that could outlive me. But the more I sat with it, the more I started thinking about the photo. The word photo comes from phos, meaning light. Early photographs were made using silver — real silver — reacting to light. That always fascinated me. It’s wild to think that what we call an image was once actual light turned into matter. There’s something mystical about that — like catching a glimpse of time’s reflection through metal. But what we call “photos” now, taken on our phones, aren’t quite the same thing. They’re echoes — digital translations of what true photographs once were. That shift made me reconsider the idea of the archive itself. At first, I thought about archives in the traditional sense: preservation, stability, the act of keeping something unchanged. But the more I thought about digitizing my work — scanning it, saving it, uploading it — the more I realized that archiving might not be about preservation at all. It might be about circulation. Once an image becomes data, it transforms. It turns into sequences of light and energy — 1’s and 0’s that exist everywhere and nowhere at once, moving across networks, copying, recombining, and reappearing in new contexts. My paintings, in that form, live in the same dimensional space as everything else online: an endless field of information constantly moving and mutating. In that sense, an archive isn’t a frozen container of memory. It’s a system where information continues to circulate, where fragments of images, ideas, and signals interact over time and slowly transform into something new. That realization pushed the idea even further for me. Maybe the real archive isn’t paper or pixels at all. Maybe it’s the cosmic field itself — that invisible frequency that all creation seems to emerge from. What if none of this is truly “new”? What if every idea, every image, every gesture is something we’re simply tuning into again — re-downloading signals that already exist within that larger field? Through that lens, the act of making becomes less about inventing and more about resonance — tapping into frequencies, pulling them through our hands, and giving them temporary form. So my work is no longer just about preservation. It’s about circulation — about sending signals into both the physical and digital worlds and trusting that energy to keep moving, recombining, and vibrating long after I’m gone.
Artist Bio
Gregory Brown Jr., also known as @GregArtsToo, is a visual artist whose work explores the relationship between energy, emotion, color, and the physical world. Through digital painting and mixed media practices, his work investigates how material, symbolism, and visual rhythm can communicate experiential meaning. Brown holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in General Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). His practice often centers on dynamic color, layered forms, and intuitive mark-making, creating images that invite viewers into a dialogue between sensation, symbolism, and perception. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Brown currently lives and works in Newport News, Virginia, where he continues to develop his visual practice through digital painting, murals, and experimental approaches to image-making.
Selected Exhibitions 2026 — Circulation (video) Archival Practices in the Virtual Age CCBC Catonsville, Baltimore, MD
2020 — Virginia Artist Juried Exhibition
2020 — Alumni of the Month, Online Exhibition
2015 — Before We Build 2209 Maryland Avenue, Baltimore, MD
2013 — CCBC Transfer Student Show CCBC Gallery, Center for the Arts, Catonsville, MD